Between October 2006 and December 2006, the City of New York has removed or obscured 59 illegal banners on sidewalk sheds. In that same period, Chase was forced to remove all illegal sidewalk projections at branches around Manhattan. And now, years into NYC’s crackdown on graffiti writers and protesters, after we’ve watched our friends be detained, arrested, beat, fined, tried, and given real jail sentences, not a single corporate toy from any ad firm has had to do any time.

This is the first collaboration between the Anti-Advertising Agency and Graffiti Research Lab. Modified from Ji Lee’s Abstractor TV. We used black foam core ($10/sheet) cut with a laser cutter – however, this project can be done with an x-acto blade, black construction paper, and duct tape for next to nothing. It can be repeated using any backlit display – bus shelters, display ads, television store windows… dream big, act now.

Dont you find it ironic by calling attention to so called graffiti you actively create your own to replace it. I do however not disagree with you. Graffiti by definition is artwork in public on public property. And I think it’s limiting to say that it’s made with chalk or spray paint. If someone in building a blasted a giant motion video through the use of a projector on building b isn’t that a form of grafiti? I think so. I bet the cops would too…

graf·fi·ti (used with a plural verb) markings, as initials, slogans, or drawings, written, spray-painted, or sketched on a sidewalk, wall of a building or public restroom, or the like

Great work, Steve. Have posted a link on my site which will no doubt drive MILLIONS of visitors. Heh. Call me when you’re headed my way or to L.A. as I’m taking over Kasey’s Venice apt. while she’s in Sydney (til June).

[…] Two admirable organizations, The Anti-Advertising Agency and Graffiti Research Lab have just collaborated on a nicely executed piece of activism. New York City has recently installed flat-screen video billboards on the sidewalk, and well, somebody had to say something. The idea began with Ji Lee’s Abstractor and has evolved to this. […]

It’s great that someone is trying to do something about all these horrible ads that we are forced to look at every day. I used to live in Manhattan, but I couldn’t take how fake everything was becoming. It was starting to feel like being in hell. I hope you guys are also involved with Adbusters – they could help you build an army of anti-advertisers.

I like the overall approach, but I have one concern. Graffiti to me can be a positive thing, unlike advertising, which is capitalist indoctrination. Now, some graffiti, like tired ass tagging (no glass houses, I used to tag), is boring and the individual version of Nike’s wallpapering of the swoosh. I think that there should be an argument for smarter stuff but I think that saying that shit like “NY’s true graffiti problem” and “graffiti equals advertising” both reinforces the meme that graffiti is a bad thing and falsely equates two very different things. Maybe this is just version one and I still like the sentiment, but for all its merits, I think it deserves a slightly better execution.

Sam, you have a good point. While writers and artists may have a more nuanced definition of the words graffiti and vandalism, we knew when we put a sign in a place like Union Square that we were speaking to a broader audience – not to mention using four words and less. You and I may think of graffiti as any number of things, including an art form or passionate attempts to actively participate in public spaces dominated by commercial advertising, but unfortunately, as a great writer once said, “All [they] see is… crime in the streets.” Perhaps another campaign could work to better educate a public that equates garffiti with vandalism.
This is version one of this project and there are more sign ideas bouncing around in our heads. But more importantly, we don’t need to be the ones to put the message out. These are inexpensive, open source tools. Each sheet of foam core cost less than ten dollars (and you could use cheaper materials). Essentially, for $30, a couple compact digital cameras set on video mode, an orange vest, and some time we were able to reach thousands of people. We sincerely hope more people take this project, improve on it, ane get it out into the world.

[…] Rocketboom has a great video clip from graffiti research lab, eyebeam and the anti-advertising agency on nyc’s graffiti problem inspired by jo lee’s abstractor tv. Watch it, wonder, and get inspired! I never thought about advertising this way, but this video changed made be realize the obvious. […]

This clip by the Anti-Advertising Agency with Graffiti Research Lab cracked me up. If folks don’t want to listen to your story, they certainly won’t tell it to others, so it’s time to reinvent yourself. You don’t want to be …

[…] You may have heard about the most recent terror attacks in Boston. This is NOT the work of the Graffiti Research Lab. We just downloaded this link from youtube. It’s Just more mindless corporate vandalism from a guerilla marketer who got busted. Interference Inc, welcome to the world of being misunderstood, scapegoated, demonized and wanted by the law. Still want to be a graffiti artist? […]

[…] Which brings us to the point of advertising vs. grafitti, vandalism vs. art vs. commerce. And rather than try to pontificate on that issue, I’ll just point you towards this video on the subject by GRL and comrades the Anti-Advertising Agency. […]

[…] The Anti-Advertising Agency correctly states that “advertising is the graffiti of the Fortune 500” and arresting someone for throwing light on a building, much less using such brash words as “terrorism” to describe it, leave me feeling very afraid for both our values and our collective Spidey Sense in this country. advertising graffiti law pr terrorism del.icio.us this | digg this | technorati this | trackback–> […]

Why do you keeping posting the same article, I mean graffiti ad
on Newstoday? It is getting really old, it is the “same difference”
as advertising! Get real job, stop complaining, get a life!
Your organization is the true vandal here.

BTW- Good concept, the video sucks and poor execution.
Must be high school drop-outs, unable to get real design jobs!

[…] You may have heard about the most recent terror attacks in Boston. This is NOT the work of the Graffiti Research Lab. We just downloaded this link from youtube. It’s Just more mindless corporate vandalism from a guerilla marketer who got busted. Interference Inc, welcome to the world of being misunderstood, scapegoated, demonized and wanted by the law. Still wanna be a graffiti artist? […]

[…] You may have heard about the most recent terror attacks in Boston. This is NOT the work of the Graffiti Research Lab. We just downloaded this link from youtube. It’s Just more mindless corporate vandalism from a guerilla marketer who got busted. Interference Inc, welcome to the world of being misunderstood, scapegoated, demonized and wanted by the law. Still want to be a graffiti artist? via BoingBoing Field under:boston LED terrorism terrorism terrorism attack […]

the older i get the less i want to work with cans….you just get fucked more and more each year haha
this shit is so awesome….what are they gonna say? you destroyed the plasma screens with tape and cardboard???

and the whole boston scandle! fucking awesome.i wish i got one of those signs…

[…] I just happen to find find light criticism (brought to you by The Anti-Advertising Agency and Graffiti Research Lab makes for some mighty fine street art, and I hope I get to see it live and in person some fine night. We’ll leave it at that: […]

[…] UPDATE: In the time after I wrote this, all hell broke loose in Boston when someone actually noticed the blinking LED signs advertising the upcoming Aqua Teen movie, and the Anti-Advertising Agency teamed up with Graffiti Research Lab to subvert outdoor light-based ads with custom-made foamcore masks/friskets. Subtractive light graffiti? […]

[…] In New York City, every fleeting moment of inspiration is paid back in soot and grime. Sometimes the soot and grime become the inspiration themselves. More often, they crowd in from the sidelines — observed but not forgotten in the multitude of things that clamor for attention. It is said that the city dweller is exposed to an average of 5000 advertisiments in a given day. Only a few of those things will be as compelling as a broken toilet flung onto the street. […]

[…] In New York City, every fleeting moment of inspiration is paid back in soot and grime. Sometimes the soot and grime become the inspiration themselves. More often, they crowd in from the sidelines — observed but not forgotten in the multitude of things that clamor for attention. It is said that the city dweller is exposed to an average of 5000 advertisiments in a given day. Only a few of those things will be as compelling as a broken toilet flung onto the street. […]

[…] This is the first collaboration between the Anti-Advertising Agency and Graffiti Research Lab. Modified from Ji Lee’s Abstractor TV. We used black foam core ($10/sheet) cut with a laser cutter – however, this project can be done with an x-acto blade, black construction paper, and duct tape for next to nothing. It can be repeated using any backlit display – bus shelters, display ads, television store windows… dream big, act now. more… […]

hi, i think what you are doing is fantastic. i support you %100. I am a lighting director at a local rock venue in michigan. i live in a town full of sheep and i want to wake these fuckers up. how do i get involved?

Advertising and graffiti can be both ugly, beautiful and everything in between. But that is not the point here. Art is not about making pretty things to look at, its about a reflection of society, us and the world we live in. Here this project is outstanding, communicating why/how graffiti is art, reflecting the ever increasing branding going on in our public space.
This is awesome! …awesome!!!

[…] Thus when I discovered this project by the Anti Advertising Agency and the inventor of throwies Graffiti Research Labs my idea was resolute (the Ratatat probably got the creative juices flowing). The television pictured here plays a video of my brother watching television only lit by its occasionally blinking stare. I put the camera in front of the screen so it looks like he is staring back out at us, from behind the stencil that as as a screen between us and him, blocking televisions message and replacing it with my own. Its like interior culture jamming. […]

[…] Our posting of the Light Criticism piece last week was fortunate in its timing to say the least. Is there now any doubt that advertising has become the vandalism of the Fortune 500? Each week it becomes more clear in the media that advertising is using illegal methods, yet the fines and arrests remain disproportionately on graffiti writers and activists. We hope more people will see the hypocrisy of arresting, jailing, and fining individual expression of people like BORF, countless street artists, RNC protesters, and cyclists from critical mass, when there has still been zero jail time for CEOs of advertising and marketing firms that knowingly and repeatedly break the law promoting corporate products. Once every permit is approved with the city, and every advertising regulation is being adhered to, when all the corporate graffiti is gone, then begin to go after the individuals. […]

[…] I personally find this more interesting, more appealing, and more subtly subversive than the last Anti-Advertising Agency “Light Criticism” project, which was interesting, but a bit blatant and direct, which seemed to decrease the thought involved. This Pixelator actually makes you think. which I’m always up for. […]

Hi there,
I am doing a presentation on graffiti and advertising in my psych. of communications course this Thursday. This clip is great and would make a great supplemental statement to my presentation. I was wondering if perhaps you could send me the file b/c we don’t have internet access in the classroom and the only way I could play it would be off of my laptop. I don’t have QuickTime pro nor anm I super computer savvy with this sort of thing so I don’t think I can just save it to my computer, and plus, I’d like to ask for your permission to use it. I would give full credit to the creators and it would really mean a lot to me.
Thx
Meg

[…] The Light Criticism Project by the Anti-Advertising Agency and the Graffiti Research Lab is not very recent, but fits perfect: “We used black foam core ($10/sheet) cut with a laser cutter – but this project can be done with an x-acto blade, black paper, and duct tape. It can be repeated using any backlit display – bus shelters, display ads or television store windows.” posted in: art, advertising, urban, display | comments: –> […]

Don’t you think it’s a little ironic that you all are putting up cut-outs as part of a project sponsored by that bored heir to the Johnson & Johnson fortune, a company which number 36 on the Fortune 500 and has PLENTY of advertising out there??

[…] Light Criticism (from Consumerist) – This is the first collaboration between the Anti-Advertising Agency and Graffiti Research Lab. Modified from Ji Lee’s Abstractor TV. We used black foam core ($10/sheet) cut with a laser cutter – however, this project can be done with an x-acto blade, black construction paper, and duct tape for next to nothing. It can be repeated using any backlit display – bus shelters, display ads, television store windows… dream big, act now. NYC’s TRUE GRAFFITI PROBLEM Watch the video here. […]

[…] from Abstractor.tv Related: Graffiti Research Lab’s & Anti-Advertising Agency’s Light Criticism, and a product (”Pixelvision”?) made of a grid of milky-translucent plastic boxes that affixes to a TV screen by suction cups and renders the TV image into a 4×3 that used to be sold at the Future Perfect in Brooklyn. And that somehow, despite the wonderfulness of Google, I can’t seem to find right now. […]

[…] artists. The Anti-Advertising Agency, along with Graffiti Research Lab, recently carried out a brilliant campaign calling attention to the advertising infestation in NYC. The AAA and GRL want city dwellers to be aware that, while graffiti artists go to jail every day […]

[…] artists. The Anti-Advertising Agency, along with Graffiti Research Lab, recently carried out a brilliant campaign calling attention to the advertising infestation in NYC. The AAA and GRL want city dwellers to be aware that, while graffiti artists go to jail every day […]

[…] artists. The Anti-Advertising Agency, along with Graffiti Research Lab, recently carried out a brilliant campaign calling attention to the advertising infestation in NYC. The AAA and GRL want city dwellers to be aware that, while graffiti artists go to jail every day […]

This stuff is FAN FUCKING TASTIC!!! I’d love to get in on something like this down in Nashville. We’re (family and some friends) are working on the Laser Tag system from GRL, and want to branch out and find more ways to wake people up from this mess, other than putting them in awe at tagging a building with a laser. But yeah, to be to the point, you guys executed this perfectly…and there’s really nothing that NYC can do, because all you technically doing is “advertising against graffiti”

[…] and the Anti-Advertisement Agency teamed up to subvert big-screen-TV ads at NYC subway stations: Light Criticism. By putting a laser-cut foam stencil over the still-running TV screen, they transformed the […]

Wow I’m really impressed and inspired. Personally I’m not bothered about the fact that this work might (possibly) reflect badly on the public’s opinion of graffiti, i think its message and its beautiful execution are far more important.

[…] the work of the Graffiti Research Lab. We just downloaded this link from youtube. ItÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s Just more mindless corporate vandalism from a guerilla marketer who got busted. Interference Inc, welcome to […]

[…] that are honest in selling their products even if they are the few.Â On top of that, the Anti-Advertising Agency goes so far as to say that advertising is vandalism.Â In fact, advertising has gotten so […]

I find it all a bit spineless and kind of a ridiculous game you are playing. What you are doing is in fact the very worst example of what your are rallying against. I agree that the wanton, unlicensed posting of bills throughout Manhattan creates an eyesore and this lawlessness should be enforced. But the video panels you chose to attack because they made good backlight for your own vandalism are licensed owned and the advertisers whose messages you chose to cover up paid for that space and time.
This is capatalism and here is how it works since you obviously don’t get it.
Companies advertise their products or services to as broad an audience as they can. This audience then spends their money on those products or services. The companies profit, they hire all of us so we can earn a living.
They pay taxes so we can have paved streets, police coverage, fire protection and emergency medical service.
Would you rather your employer not make a profit and have to lay you off?
Admit it… you’re just playing a kids game and getting some much needed attention.

I was in O’Hare airport in Chicago recently. I went into a bathroom and washed my hands. As I did so the mirror turned into a large screen and bombarded me with images. I was so taken aback that I do not remember the product that was advertised, but got out of the bathroom as quickly as possible. If I did remember I would make sure never to buy the product. It was extraordinarily invasive.

Don’t you love how all of us are smarter than consumer America! When those sheep look out at this world, they are bombarded with messages that force them to buy things they don’t need, but they are too stupid to tell that they are looking at ads. We, on the other hand, can see behind the curtain, so we don’t buy into any dogma that can be written in 140 characters or less. I’m so glad that I don’t consume anything, and that I am smart enough to not get brainwashed like everybody else.

I was thinking, wow, this dude really understand me. Then I realized you were being ironic. Then I it dawned on me that my whole life is a sham. What right do I have to criticize anything when I live in the United States of America in 2011 and I buy things? For the rest of the night I will try to figure out a place where I can go that has no consumerism so that I can finally speak critically from a place of integrity.

[…] Two admirable organizations, The Anti-Advertising Agency and Graffiti Research Lab have just collaborated on a nicely executed piece of activism. New York City has recently installed flat-screen video billboards on the sidewalk, and well, somebody had to say something. The idea began with Ji Lee’s Abstractor and has evolved to this. […]

[…] Rocketboom has a great video clip from graffiti research lab, eyebeam and the anti-advertising agency on nyc’s graffiti problem inspired by jo lee’s abstractor tv. Watch it, wonder, and get inspired! I never thought about advertising this way, but this video changed made be realize the obvious. […]

This clip by the Anti-Advertising Agency with Graffiti Research Lab cracked me up. If folks don’t want to listen to your story, they certainly won’t tell it to others, so it’s time to reinvent yourself. You don’t want to be …

[…] You may have heard about the most recent terror attacks in Boston. This is NOT the work of the Graffiti Research Lab. We just downloaded this link from youtube. It’s Just more mindless corporate vandalism from a guerilla marketer who got busted. Interference Inc, welcome to the world of being misunderstood, scapegoated, demonized and wanted by the law. Still want to be a graffiti artist? […]

[…] Which brings us to the point of advertising vs. grafitti, vandalism vs. art vs. commerce. And rather than try to pontificate on that issue, I’ll just point you towards this video on the subject by GRL and comrades the Anti-Advertising Agency. […]

[…] The Anti-Advertising Agency correctly states that “advertising is the graffiti of the Fortune 500” and arresting someone for throwing light on a building, much less using such brash words as “terrorism” to describe it, leave me feeling very afraid for both our values and our collective Spidey Sense in this country. advertising graffiti law pr terrorism del.icio.us this | digg this | technorati this | trackback–> […]

[…] You may have heard about the most recent terror attacks in Boston. This is NOT the work of the Graffiti Research Lab. We just downloaded this link from youtube. It’s Just more mindless corporate vandalism from a guerilla marketer who got busted. Interference Inc, welcome to the world of being misunderstood, scapegoated, demonized and wanted by the law. Still wanna be a graffiti artist? […]

[…] You may have heard about the most recent terror attacks in Boston. This is NOT the work of the Graffiti Research Lab. We just downloaded this link from youtube. It’s Just more mindless corporate vandalism from a guerilla marketer who got busted. Interference Inc, welcome to the world of being misunderstood, scapegoated, demonized and wanted by the law. Still want to be a graffiti artist? via BoingBoing Field under:boston LED terrorism terrorism terrorism attack […]

[…] I just happen to find find light criticism (brought to you by The Anti-Advertising Agency and Graffiti Research Lab makes for some mighty fine street art, and I hope I get to see it live and in person some fine night. We’ll leave it at that: […]

[…] UPDATE: In the time after I wrote this, all hell broke loose in Boston when someone actually noticed the blinking LED signs advertising the upcoming Aqua Teen movie, and the Anti-Advertising Agency teamed up with Graffiti Research Lab to subvert outdoor light-based ads with custom-made foamcore masks/friskets. Subtractive light graffiti? […]

[…] In New York City, every fleeting moment of inspiration is paid back in soot and grime. Sometimes the soot and grime become the inspiration themselves. More often, they crowd in from the sidelines — observed but not forgotten in the multitude of things that clamor for attention. It is said that the city dweller is exposed to an average of 5000 advertisiments in a given day. Only a few of those things will be as compelling as a broken toilet flung onto the street. […]

[…] In New York City, every fleeting moment of inspiration is paid back in soot and grime. Sometimes the soot and grime become the inspiration themselves. More often, they crowd in from the sidelines — observed but not forgotten in the multitude of things that clamor for attention. It is said that the city dweller is exposed to an average of 5000 advertisiments in a given day. Only a few of those things will be as compelling as a broken toilet flung onto the street. […]

[…] This is the first collaboration between the Anti-Advertising Agency and Graffiti Research Lab. Modified from Ji Lee’s Abstractor TV. We used black foam core ($10/sheet) cut with a laser cutter – however, this project can be done with an x-acto blade, black construction paper, and duct tape for next to nothing. It can be repeated using any backlit display – bus shelters, display ads, television store windows… dream big, act now. more… […]

[…] Thus when I discovered this project by the Anti Advertising Agency and the inventor of throwies Graffiti Research Labs my idea was resolute (the Ratatat probably got the creative juices flowing). The television pictured here plays a video of my brother watching television only lit by its occasionally blinking stare. I put the camera in front of the screen so it looks like he is staring back out at us, from behind the stencil that as as a screen between us and him, blocking televisions message and replacing it with my own. Its like interior culture jamming. […]

[…] Our posting of the Light Criticism piece last week was fortunate in its timing to say the least. Is there now any doubt that advertising has become the vandalism of the Fortune 500? Each week it becomes more clear in the media that advertising is using illegal methods, yet the fines and arrests remain disproportionately on graffiti writers and activists. We hope more people will see the hypocrisy of arresting, jailing, and fining individual expression of people like BORF, countless street artists, RNC protesters, and cyclists from critical mass, when there has still been zero jail time for CEOs of advertising and marketing firms that knowingly and repeatedly break the law promoting corporate products. Once every permit is approved with the city, and every advertising regulation is being adhered to, when all the corporate graffiti is gone, then begin to go after the individuals. […]

[…] I personally find this more interesting, more appealing, and more subtly subversive than the last Anti-Advertising Agency “Light Criticism” project, which was interesting, but a bit blatant and direct, which seemed to decrease the thought involved. This Pixelator actually makes you think. which I’m always up for. […]

[…] The Light Criticism Project by the Anti-Advertising Agency and the Graffiti Research Lab is not very recent, but fits perfect: “We used black foam core ($10/sheet) cut with a laser cutter – but this project can be done with an x-acto blade, black paper, and duct tape. It can be repeated using any backlit display – bus shelters, display ads or television store windows.” posted in: art, advertising, urban, display | comments: –> […]

[…] Light Criticism (from Consumerist) – This is the first collaboration between the Anti-Advertising Agency and Graffiti Research Lab. Modified from Ji Lee’s Abstractor TV. We used black foam core ($10/sheet) cut with a laser cutter – however, this project can be done with an x-acto blade, black construction paper, and duct tape for next to nothing. It can be repeated using any backlit display – bus shelters, display ads, television store windows… dream big, act now. NYC’s TRUE GRAFFITI PROBLEM Watch the video here. […]

[…] from Abstractor.tv Related: Graffiti Research Lab’s & Anti-Advertising Agency’s Light Criticism, and a product (”Pixelvision”?) made of a grid of milky-translucent plastic boxes that affixes to a TV screen by suction cups and renders the TV image into a 4×3 that used to be sold at the Future Perfect in Brooklyn. And that somehow, despite the wonderfulness of Google, I can’t seem to find right now. […]

[…] artists. The Anti-Advertising Agency, along with Graffiti Research Lab, recently carried out a brilliant campaign calling attention to the advertising infestation in NYC. The AAA and GRL want city dwellers to be aware that, while graffiti artists go to jail every day […]

[…] artists. The Anti-Advertising Agency, along with Graffiti Research Lab, recently carried out a brilliant campaign calling attention to the advertising infestation in NYC. The AAA and GRL want city dwellers to be aware that, while graffiti artists go to jail every day […]

[…] artists. The Anti-Advertising Agency, along with Graffiti Research Lab, recently carried out a brilliant campaign calling attention to the advertising infestation in NYC. The AAA and GRL want city dwellers to be aware that, while graffiti artists go to jail every day […]

[…] and the Anti-Advertisement Agency teamed up to subvert big-screen-TV ads at NYC subway stations: Light Criticism. By putting a laser-cut foam stencil over the still-running TV screen, they transformed the […]

[…] the work of the Graffiti Research Lab. We just downloaded this link from youtube. ItÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s Just more mindless corporate vandalism from a guerilla marketer who got busted. Interference Inc, welcome to […]

[…] that are honest in selling their products even if they are the few.Â On top of that, the Anti-Advertising Agency goes so far as to say that advertising is vandalism.Â In fact, advertising has gotten so […]